Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The 100 Strangers Project

After a few months hiatus from blogging, I'm back. Ive finally found a project I feel is worth posting about. It's called the 100 Strangers Project. The goal is simple, yet very challenging; meet and converse with 100 strangers, then take their portrait. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. One of the reasons I've taken on this project is to help conquer my fear of talking to strangers and taking better street photography of those I do not know.

Those who follow my photography over at my flickr stream know I've completed the 52 Week Self Portrait Project. This was to help me get over my fears of being in front of the camera. It did really help me. I now can take a decent self portrait without looking like a complete dorkus. Hopefully this project will give me the confidence the 52 week project gave.

So, this is my first Stranger portrait, Collin. I went with some friends to Lee Harvey's in Dallas to watch a very interesting band perform. As I was shooting photos of the band, I noticed Collin also taking pictures. He had just the unique look to convince me he had to be my first Stranger portrait. I approached him as the band was still playing and screamed "Hey man can i take your picture!?" Yeah I know, kind of insane. He looked at me with a half smile and said Ok. We worked our way through the crowd, over to the bar where the lighting was better. I explained the 100 Strangers project and introduced myself. I had him pose in front of the bar and I fired off two or three photos. I was most happy with this one. I then handed Collin one of my cards instructing him where he could see his photo. A quick hand shake and we were both off into the crowd to continue our band photography.